


Dependency

by Strawbellie666



Category: xxxHoLic, 신의 탑 | Tower of God
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-17
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:54:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25790932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Strawbellie666/pseuds/Strawbellie666
Summary: Twenty-fifth Bam, a simple regular who settled on the 16th floor, stumbles into a strange shop run by a strange man one day. Khun Aguero Agnes, a strange mysterious man who runs a shop that grants wishes.From the beginning to the end, their paths lay entwined. And it is with this beginning, an end to many things has been set in motion.There are many unusual things in this world.But people.People are the most mysterious of them all.
Relationships: Khun Aguero Agnis/Twenty-Fifth Baam | Jyu Viole Grace
Comments: 18
Kudos: 77





	1. Beginnings

_There are many unusual things in this world._

_Everyday, events occur that cannot be explained,_

_Bizarre phenomenon that often go unnoticed_

_Because people close their eyes to what they don’t understand._

_But the truth of the matter is_

_There are many unusual things in this world,_

_And people,_

_People are the most mysterious of them all._

Bam stared at the man lounging on the chaise opposite him, long silvery blue hair spilling elegantly over an exposed shoulder and puffing out loose rings of smoke, a thin pipe dangling from long fingers.

"You came here because you were fated to come here" the man repeated and Bam watched in fascination as the man shifted his weight on the chaise, bringing down long legs to trail against the floor before raising a silvery eyebrow at him.

"Fated?" Bam said because what was this man even talking about? He'd just wanted to go for groceries before his legs had dragged him here to this house with its almost eerie emptiness.

"Fate: an event that must happen no matter what. Nothing will happen without it. Many things cannot be imagined without it." The man's lips curled, into a smile sweet and honey and it sent a chill down Bam's spine, as he took an unconscious step back.

Like lightning, a smirk flashed across the man's face, quicksilver and gone before Bam could even really register it, his mind spinning as he tried to understand what was going on. This room, this place, this person, something about it churned in his bones, a thrum in his skin, of nostalgia, of a recognition he couldn't place but felt so so familiar.

"I'm sorry, I think you misunderstood. Something strange happened after I touched the wall outside and my feet dragged me in here. Is it a spell of some kind?" Bam asked, because though he didn't know much about spells, he had heard of people using magic in the tower.

"Of sorts. The wall is a barrier, a prayer in order to eliminate disturbances. It creates an area which has no entrance but both an inside and an outside." The man spoke, answering Bam's question and Bam appreciated that. Even after living in the tower for the past 6 yrs, there were still so many things he didn't know.

He thought it over, absorbing the words before wondering, "But there was an entrance there. On the outside. I wouldn't have been able to come here otherwise."

Long silver lashes blinked at him and Bam got the feeling the other man was amused by him, as he reached out a hand and beckoned Bam to come closer. He did, those thin long fingers pulling him forward like a thread. Up close, he could see his sharp angular features more clearly, the cobalt eyes distant and reminiscent of the night sky Bam liked gazing at.

"You're a sharp one, aren't you? What's your name?" He asked and his voice rang through Bam like a bell, silver and airy, drifting through him. 

Bam paused, hesitant. In this strange place, was it really okay to give his name away? He wasn't anyone significant, just a simple regular who had settled down on this floor, tired of all the killing and death that came with climbing. But. Even he knew better than to give his name to a complete stranger, especially in a place as suspicious as this.

"Um. I apologize but I think it's better if I don't mention my name here." 

The man laughed, the sound warm and settling beneath Bam's ribs, like a small fluttering bird and it nearly stole his breath away. "You really are a sharp one, 25th Bam." 

What.

"How did you know my name?" 

Bam's words echoed in the room, curling up into the smoke and absorbed, wispy and soft. The man stood up, catlike elegance distracting and stepped closer to Bam. Closer, closer until they were standing besides each other and Bam realized they were nearly the same height. A hand reached out to Bam's face and he tensed, unable to pull back as the man cupped his cheek softly, so softly, as if Bam would break if he wasn't careful.

"You don't remember it but we've met once before, 25th Bam. A long long time before."

Bam blinked, once, twice before smiling hesitantly at the other man who was so so close now, close enough that he could see each silvery lash framing blue blue eyes, and the specks of bright blue in those eyes that held him in place.

"Is that so? I'm sorry, this may sound strange. I don't have my memories from 6 years ago so I apologize for not recognizing you."

The warm hand against his cheek tensed before pulling away and for an instant, Bam acutely missed it, the warmth still a lingering sensation against his cheek.

"No, it's alright. I wasn't expecting you to remember me."

Bam felt he should apologize and apologize anyway, because there was an aching sadness hidden in those dark orbs focused on him and it twisted in Bam like spun glass. He couldn't understand why but the thought of this person being sad curled up in his chest like an icy cold, like a forgotten child, wrapped around his heart and squeezed.

But the sadness was gone from one moment to the next, like a long drawn out breath. 

"Would you like to know my name then? To make it equal," he said, something heavy hanging in the last word Bam caught but couldn't understand. 

To make it equal? 

What a strange way of offering an introduction, as if he owed Bam something for simply knowing his name.

“It’s alright, you don’t have to do it if you’d rather not, Mister.”

Surprise flashed across the other’s face, followed by an emotion he couldn’t identify, too fast and gone, in the space of a blink before the man’s lips curled up in a smile too thin to be real. 

“You should be more careful, 25th Bam. Giving a person your name means giving them the ability to take your soul. Names have power in this tower, and souls even more so.” Then, he reached his hand out to Bam, flowing and gentle. A handshake. 

“My name is Khun Aguero Agnes. Call me Khun.”

Bam reached out hesitantly, grasping the offered hand and shaking it as he voiced the question lingering on his lips, left by this mysterious man, "If giving out names is so dangerous, why would you give me yours, Mr. Khun?"

A soft chuckle escaped the other man before he reached out and patted Bam's cheek mockingly, his cobalt eyes bright and far too amused for Bam's taste. 

"Who said that was my real name, Bam?"

Bam jerked, unable to help it this time at the intrusion in his personal space. He was… not fond of people doing that.

Khun did not look insulted by his actions.

If anything, the man just looked even more amused, silver blue strands of hair framing his face and the dark gleam in his eyes.

What was this? This was too confusing and by all sense of rationality he should be trying to get as far away as possible from this dreary house with its empty echoes and its haunting nostalgia. He should be trying to get as far as possible from this person who dragged him in so easily, capturing his attention like moth to a flame.

His senses were blurring and time was starting to lose all meaning in this place.

And yet.

He couldn't quite bring himself to leave. 

"But your hair- You must be related to the Khun Family." In the 6 years of memories that he did have, he'd seen and heard enough about the Ten Families to at least recognise a son of Khun by his colouring.

Khun smiled, but it was a dangerous little thing. All sharp and looking at it too long almost felt like being devoured. A guillotine hanging over his neck, invisible and taught and just waiting for him to say something wrong.

But the feeling disappeared with a blink of his eyes and Khun's smile was softer now, almost as if he had hallucinated the danger it had radiated before. 

"You're right in that. I was a son of Khun long time ago. And I was banished a long time ago." 

Oh. Now Bam felt guilty. He hadn't meant to bring up unpleasant memories for the man, strange and confusing as he was, nobody deserved to be reminded of old scars.

He bowed, apology stumbling from his lips awkwardly, but Khun waved him away with a soft laugh, telling him "It's better off being away from that boring rigid place anyways, so don't worry about it."

Bam rubbed the back of his neck, unsure how to reply to that. He stood there for a moment fidgeting awkwardly until Khun blew out a sigh, before stepping over to the paper doors that had snapped shut on their own behind Bam when his legs had first dragged him into this room.

"Since you're here anyways Bam, how about some tea while we talk?"

He should refuse. He should definitely refuse. This was the perfect opportunity to explain he hadn't meant to come in here in the first place and leave.

But when he looked across the room and caught Khun's eyes, the words in his throat melted and Bam nodded. 

Surely, it would be rude to walk away from an offer of tea? Yes the place was all kinds of suspicious but the other man hadn't done anything to indicate harm so far. It would be rude to walk away now and Bam didn't want to be rude after his earlier social faux paus

So he nodded and the other man grinned, the expression lighting up his face and- okay. Wow. Khun was pretty.

He had sort of vaguely registered it earlier but his mind had been too preoccupied with the eeriness of this place. Now though, as he followed the other man down the hallway into a room with a small table set with two chairs adjacent to a window, sunlight streaming in and lighting up that face, Bam could see it clearly.

Khun had the kind of face that people threw themselves at, and there was something about him that drew a person in. An aura that demanded attention in a way that couldn't be ignored.

Khun indicated he should sit before stepping out of the room, leaving Bam standing in there alone. 

Sitting down at the table, he gazed around the patterned walls of the room, painted with delicate lines of ink, a wall of blue hydrangea blooming.

His eyes trailed the painted flowers where they brushed the edges of the ceiling. The ceiling itself was painted black with a large silver fox sitting in the middle, nine tails spreading out in all directions.

There was a shuffle from the door drawing Bam's attention as Khun stepped back in holding a tray containing two steaming cups of tea, followed by a similar head of blue hair hovering around the man's waist.

A young girl stepped in after Khun, holding a tray in her hand that contained biscuits. Her hair was a few shades darker than Khun's and her eyes almost lilac but they shared the same thick eyebrows, long lashes and the resemblance was obvious enough. Another member of the Khun family.

Khun turned to her after both trays were set in front of Bam and he reached out to pat the girl's head gently. "Thank you for the help, Aria. You can go back to the others now."

The young girl beamed at him, hugging Khun's waist before running out of the door, the echo of her footsteps fading away as Khun took the only seat across from him. 

"A sibling?" Bam couldn't help asking as the man pushed one of the cups of tea and the plate of biscuits towards him.

"I suppose one could describe it as that. She's one of my helpers for this shop." 

"A shop? I didn't…" 

"Didn't recognize it as one?" Khun chuckled, blowing gently on his tea before taking a sip. 

"My shop is an unusual one and not one many people can find, 25th Bam."

Bam reached out, wrapping his hands around the cup of tea carefully. "Bam is fine, Mr. Khun. What kind of shop in this?"

A silver brow was raised haughtily at him as the man took another sip before replying, "A wish granting shop. Did you step in here unaware?"

Bam nibbled on one of the biscuits, trying to keep his cheeks from flushing in embarrassment. "I didn't mean to. When I touched the walls outside my legs dragged me in here for some reason. I apologize for intruding."

Khun set his cup gently back on the table, tracing the rim with an elegant forefinger and dark eyes meeting Bam's from across the table. 

"You don't have to apologize, Bam."

"If you came here, it's because it was inevitable. This meeting was inevitable. So tell me Bam, what wish has brought you to my humble shop?" 

Blue blue eyes were swallowing him, pulling him in like a vortex. 

Bam gulped down tea, the liquid sloshing hot down his throat and tried not to fall into the night sky staring at him from across the table. The tea settled in his stomach, warm and bitter and he focused on that, turning Khun's words over in his head.

A wish? 

The pang of lost memories, of not having anything rang through him, familiar and bitter.

Who was he? What was he? Where did he come from? Questions that had haunted him for years and questions he'd learnt to let lie dormant, like old unseen ghosts haunting his shadow.

He did have a wish. But could this man grant it?

"Your memories."

Bam's eyes darted to the blue haired man, freezing.

"That is your wish, isn't it?" Khun rested his chin on his palm, and peered at him from beneath long lashes translucent in the sunlight.

"You wish to recover the memories you do not have."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to my most self indulgent AU, the Khun runs a wish shop and has too much fun doing it AU. Bam is just very confused and going along for the ride.
> 
> I wanted to write something with the wish granting shop from xxxHolic in the tower so here it is.  
> I'm honestly just trying to have fun instead of overthinking writing this so it might be more messy than my other works.
> 
> Blue hydrangea often symbolises apology and gratitude amongst various meanings.


	2. A Price To Pay For A New Beginning

Chapter 2

Previously on Dependency,

_ Bam's eyes darted to the blue haired man, freezing. _

_ "That is your wish, isn't it?" Khun rested his chin on his palm, and peered at him from beneath long lashes translucent in the sunlight. _

_ "You wish to recover the memories you do not have." _

"I- yes. I would like that. But is that something this shop can grant?" 

Khun's lips twitched, "Would you believe me so simply if I said yes?"

That was-

A good question.

Bam hadn't questioned it at first, the idea of a shop that could grant wishes. The top of the tower was said to grant one's deepest wishes if one could reach it. 

And

There was something about this shop, with its scent of incense and flower patterned walls and the shinsu he could feel around it.

The shinsu in this place was-

Still. Eerily so.

Shinsu never stayed still, not even once in Bam's experience with it. It was always roiling, moving with the air, the wind, the world itself generated in the movement of the shinsu.

And yet, in this place, shinsu stood still, like a broken clock, stale and lingering and it sent uneasy shivers down his spine. 

In a place like this, time felt like an intruder.

It was  _ easy _ to believe this shop, this man could grant his wish. And it was that ease which made Bam wary. He had to learn firsthand not to trust people so easily. He wasn't going to discard that lesson so simply. And really, it wasn't like his memories were something that could be returned just like that. They were  _ memories _ . Not riches, not power, not things that could be bought. 

Bam chewed on his lower lip, trying to think of a good way to tell the man sitting across from him that he couldn't believe him so easily.

The sound of Khun's chuckle broke him out of his musing, his attention drawn back to that elegant face as Khun nodded towards him.

"It's alright. I didn't expect you to believe me. It'd be stranger to believe someone at their word in this tower."

Bam averted his eyes to stare at the teacup in his hands. He had no reason to feel guilty. He should not trust a stranger, especially one as suspicious as this one.

"Give me the item in your pocket."

Bam glanced up, meeting cobalt eyes. There was a demand in that voice that he should refuse but couldn't. Hesitantly, he pulled out the small blue cloth that he always kept with him, folded in a manner that hid the Khun family symbol on it.

"Hurry up. Pass it over here please." 

Bam paused, "I need to know why first, Mr. Khun. This is… important to me and it's not something I want to lose."

For a moment the man across him tensed and Bam wondered if he had said the wrong thing again, insulted the other man with his refusal. But then Khun sighed, blowing out a long breath before he responded, "It's alright, I will return it. Since this is an exchange to prove my worthiness, the price will be mine to pay."

Bam passed over the blue cloth, fingers clinging to the familiar old fabric as he placed it in Khun's outstretched hand. He doesn't know where it came from. It has been with him from his earliest remembered memory and Bam had kept it because surely, surely it was linked to his past. 

A warm hand was placed on top of his, pale and long fingers pressing gently against his skin. Bam glanced up from the blue fabric, meeting Khun's eyes. The same colour as the fabric, he couldn't help but note. The exact same shade.

"Don't worry. I'll give it back to you soon," Khun tells him, promise intent in his face, sincere and warm.

Bam nodded, leaving the soft fabric in between Khun's hands and drawing his hand back. Khun smiled at him, the expression perhaps softer than anything he'd seen on the man's face so far.

The blue haired man cupped the fabric in his hands, taking a deep breath in. 

There was the faint sound of a bell chiming in the air as Khun blew out air, air that looked almost solid and silvery as it wrapped around the article in his hands. Thin silvery streams of air were billowing through the whole room, increasing in strength yet strangely Bam couldn't feel them at all.

Khun's hair was blowing in the wind, streams of silver carrying his hair up almost playfully, until those long strands of blue were floating up and around him, stealing Bam's breath away with the ethereal beauty of it. 

The fabric itself was enclosed in a bubble of silver and it rose up, floating in between them. The sound of the chiming bells increased, and the air coiled around them, moving almost as if in unison to those chimes.

Shinsu.

It was shinsu, Bam realized with a gasp. But it was shinsu in a way he'd never seen before. Shinsu almost always took the form of water when controlled aside from  _ bangs _ . The air in the tower was all shinsu of course but this was his first time seeing shinsu controlled in the form of  _ air _ .

But there was something more to it.

Something too ancient for words, wrapped into the shinsu, twisting around the air of life, old and magical and  _ powerful. _

And then there was Khun himself. His blue eyes were glowing with the same silver that curled around them, his expression distant, as if he were somewhere far away, not sitting here, with Bam. Distant, hazy, his eyes silver and deep blues intermixing and it sent an uneasy chill skittering down Bam’s spine, leaving goosebumps in its wake. Seeing Khun like  _ this _ , detached, his hair floating around him, expression eerily serene and hollow, it rang  _ wrong _ in Bam’s gut. Wrong wrong  _ wrong _ there was something wrong with that expression on Khun’s face, porcelain and doll like, elegance and transience painted in silver streams in those features. 

It was as if Khun was here but not. 

Khun’s hands reached up, cupping the floating silver ball in which Bam’s precious treasure was stored and to Bam’s surprise, faint glowing lines appeared over both of Khun’s hands, two overlapping triangles forming a six pointed star, a deep blue circle curving around them and a bright silver crescent moon set in the centre of the strange glowing circle-like symbol.

Khun spoke, his words ringing in union with the windy chiming bells Bam could still hear faintly.

  
_ Twenty-Fifth Bam.  _ _ Twenty-Fifth Bam. _ _ You no longer have the memories of your birthplace. _ _ Your past, your existence, they’re all hidden from you. _ _ You don’t know of your parents or of any birth family _ _ You have skillful hands and housework experience, _ _ but that is because you choose to live alone, _ _ no teammates or roommates live with you. _

_ Right now,  _ _ and ever since you can remember, you have always felt uneasy around people. _ _ Strange and unusual, as if you can’t belong. _ _ Because of your memories, of not knowing who you are. _ _ Also there are _ _ things related to Destiny. _

Khun’s eyes shifted from the silver ball to Bam, and for an instant those cobalt blue depths were back, vibrant and stunning midnight blue and then they shifted, hazy silver and empty as Khun continued.

_ You can see Shinsu, _ _ in a special way that others can’t. _ _ You can see the Shinsu that ties people and things, that generates the world. _ _ It is thanks to the blood that flows in your veins,  _ _ your destiny and past intertwining to show you these things. _

A gasp escaped Bam, “How?” Maybe the other things could be researched about Bam but he’d  _ never _ told anyone about the way he could see shinsu, threads and strands wrapped around people and connecting them to objects, to each other. 

Khun blinked, the trance slipping away, as his eyes went back to that familiar deep blue and it sent a wave of relief spinning through Bam, surprising him. And then Khun smirked at him, lips curled up in that expression of amusement that was becoming familiar to Bam.

“You gave me your name and with it, your birthdate. You gave me this which has been with you for the past six years. You should be more careful about that, Bam” Khun told him, before clapping his hands together. Those distant bells chimed one last time with the clap of his hands and the streams of silver began to dissipate, leaving the blue fabric in Khun’s hands.

Bam stared at the fabric before looking up at the other man, “And you got all that from just-?”

Khun’s smirk widened and he reached out to pass the blue fabric back to Bam, fingers brushing over the Khun family symbol embroidered over its front, “Of course. It’s just a matter of being able to decipher and understand it.”

Khun reached up and pulled off the blue cuff perched daintily on his ear as the doors to the room slid open. Another blue-haired child stood in the doorway, taller than the previous one Bam had seen with Khun earlier. She had long dark blue hair tied in two pigtails that fell in waves down to her thighs. She was humming under her breath and swaying to the tune as she waltzed up to Khun who placed the blue earring in her extended hand with a mournful sigh.

“Please put it with the other items to be sent to Yuuko in the next delivery, Arua,” Khun said to the young girl who nodded at him, giving him a two fingered salute with her other hand. She made her way back to the doorway, body still swaying back and forth to the tune she was humming. She turned at the door to give Bam a wink with twinkling purple eyes before dashing off and soon Bam could hear her footsteps fading away into the distance.

“It’s a pity, I actually liked that earring. But with Yuuko, it always is about equivalent exchange.” Bam’s attention was drawn to Khun who was rubbing the spot on his ear the cuff had rested on, displeased grimace on his features. The ear looked strangely empty without the attachment on it.

“Equivalent exchange?” Bam questioned, unable to help the curiosity bubbling within him now that the strange hollow serenity from earlier was completely gone from Khun’s features. 

“If you wish for something, you must pay an equal price in return.You can’t get more or give more. It cannot be more or less, it must be in balance. Or else there’ll be mishaps,” Khun answered, reaching down to swirl the tea in his cup. He took a sip before grimacing, “It’s too cold now.”

“Mishaps?”

Khun set the tea cup back on the tray with a soft clack, “Whether it’s to a person’s physical self, the hidden paths that guide people or the spirits from another world, mishaps will happen if the balance is not equal.”

And then to Bam’s surprise, Khun shrugged, his long blue hair swaying with the movement as he added rather dryly, “Or at least that’s what Yuuko says. And since she is the true owner of this shop, I must abide by her conditions.”

Bam raised an eyebrow. He had been under the impression that Khun was the owner of this shop. Everything in this place lingered with his presence, a faint sense of icy shinsu hanging around it. The same ice shinsu that he could see faintly wrapped around Khun’s elegant fingers, a lingering sense of his ability that he could never quite turn off fully.

“I thought this was your shop, Mr Khun.”

Khun smiled, his expression almost wry as he replied, “It is mine. But hmm think of it as a branch of the main section of the shop. Yuuko is the one who owns the whole thing, I’m simply in charge of running this branch for her.”

“I see.” He did not. He had no idea who this Yuuko was and he had a feeling he was better off not knowing.

Bam looked down at the blue fabric still clasped in his fingers, pieces fumbling together in his head. A thought occurred to him and his eyes snapped back to the other man.

“Wait when you talked earlier about the price being yours to pay- do you mean that earring was your price?”

“Yes.”

Oh.

Bam hadn’t realized- he hadn’t meant for the other man to give up something important to him, just to prove to  _ Bam _ that he was trustworthy. Bam wasn’t- He wasn’t worth something like that.

“I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean for you to give up something important just to prove me-” 

Bam’s babbling apology was cut off by Khun’s raised hand. 

“It’s alright. It is a price that was promised to Yuuko from the beginning. However, we’re here to talk about something else, aren’t we?”

Khun’s blue eyes were pinning Bam down, the night sky in those dark eyes still holding too much power over him as Khun nodded towards him, “We’re here to talk about  _ your _ wish, Bam. So will you trust me to fulfill your wish now? To return your memories?”

“Are you ready to pay the price they require?”

Bam’s throat felt dry. His memories.... Was he truly ready to pay the price of that? It wouldn’t be a minor price, not with how much having his memories back would mean to him. He could read between the lines. The price was determined by the value of the wish to the owner.

But what was the point of asking himself this now?

He already knew the answer, had known it from the instant Khun had offered to recover his memories. 

“ _ Yes.” _

Khun  _ smiled _ . 

“Then I’ll ask you again. What is your wish, Twenty-Fifth Bam?”

“My wish is... to recover the memories I do not have. Of my past, my birth, my origins, whatever that may include.”

Resolute golden eyes met cobalt as Khun’s lips curled into a smile, sweet and hollow, “Is that what you want?”

Bam nodded firmly, once. 

And Khun leaned closer, until Bam could see that silver from earlier coiling in his eyes, electric blue and mesmerizing. 

_ “All right. Let me fulfill your wish then.” _

“And the price?” Bam asked. He was prepared. Bam did not have many things but for his memories, he was willing to give up what little he did have. It would be worth it. It  _ had _ to.

The edges of Khun’s smile softened, no longer porcelain and eerie, something warm replacing the silver in his eyes as he looked at Bam. “How about you work here? You can work here and when your diligence has balanced your wish, I will fulfill it. Simple enough, no?”

Work? Just like that?

Bam had been prepared to lose something extremely important or to do something difficult but just simply working here? Wasn’t that too easy?

“Um. Not that I’m complaining but is something like that really enough to pay for my memories? Would the price really be in balance?” 

“Why? Would you rather give up your soul, Bam?” Khun asked him, amused smirk that was now becoming much too familiar to Bam back on his lips. Bam shook his head frantically in response, getting a chuckle in return.

“Don’t worry. It is enough payment.”

Bam nodded. “Alright I can do that. Will I be starting from today?”

Khun shook his head, “No. You can start from the day after tomorrow, it’s already too late today. I’ll give you my pocket contact before you go.”

Bam jerked with a start, pulling up his pocket to look at the time. It was late. He had stayed here way longer than he had ever meant to, not that he’d mean to stay in the first place when he first stumbled in. He stood up hurriedly, bowing to Khun, “I should get going, it’s already late enough.”

“Mm I’ll guide you to the front door, come on,” Khun stood up, his body unfolding in a movement almost unfairly elegant. He strode to the door, beckoning Bam to follow him with one hand. Bam followed him down flower patterned hallways, blue hydrangea guiding their path and soon enough they were standing in front of the main door.

To Bam’s surprise, familiar bags were lined up neatly near the entrance. His groceries! He had dropped them earlier in his surprise when his legs had dragged him into Khun’s shop of their own will.

“I asked one of my helpers to gather them up earlier. It wouldn’t do for you to lose your groceries now,” Khun told him, arms crossed as he leaned his hip against the doorway. Bam resolutely kept his eyes away from the slit in Khun’s robes exposing a long pale thigh, and thanked the other man.

“Thank you for everything today, Mr. Khun.”

Khun nodded towards him, “You’re welcome. And before you go-”

A Pocket appeared next to Khun but it was unlike any Pocket Bam had ever seen before. It was in the shape of a head that reminded Bam of a crocodile, red eyes deep set and glowing. Khun pressed something on his Pocket and then Bam’s own Pocket dinged in response. Wait, was that-?

Bam checked his Pocket and yeap, there it was. A message from Khun Aguero Agnis. 

“Wait how do you have my contact, Mr. Khun?”

“That’s for me to know, and for you to figure out, Bam,” Khun told him, and Bam couldn’t help but squint at his mischievous smile before shaking his head. 

“That’s alright, you can keep your secrets, Mr. Khun. I’ll see you the day after tomorrow then.”

Bam gathered up his groceries and stepped out, the wooden door automatically snapping shut behind him. He walked down the pathway leading to the gate and when he stepped out, it was almost like stepping into a different world. 

It was still dark out, late as it was but now Bam could hear the sounds of animals, of leaves rustling and of vehicles. It was only then Bam realized it had been eerily still and silent inside the house, no ambient noises except for the ones made by the people within.

What a strange mysterious place, he mused to himself as he made a note of the location on his Pocket. Khun’s contact gleamed on his Pocket, blue against the glossy black surface. And what a strange mysterious man.

And he was going to be working in this strange place from now on.

Well it certainly wouldn’t be boring at least.

* * *

Aguero leaned against the door, resting his head against the cool wooden surface.  Bam had gone home for the day. He would be starting his work here soon. Too soon maybe.

24 hours for Aguero to brace himself to see Bam again. 

Bam bam _bam_.

He'd thought himself prepared for this. To see Bam again, to hear his voice again. 

He was an idiot. 

When has he ever been prepared for Bam? 

"He's still the truthful type."

His words were greeted by the empty silence he'd come to expect. The same empty silence that has been his companion for all these past years. How many years has it been? He’s lost track really.

But it's all worth it now, to be able to see Bam.

_ He can finally see Bam again. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm surprised I managed to get the second chapter out so fast.  
> You can definitely see hints of Plot peeking through especially at the end there. But that'll come gradually in the future. It's really fun to figure out how to mix up Shinsu with magic.
> 
> Now that the setup is ready, we can really get into things from the next chapter!


End file.
